I Never Promised You a Rose Garden Essay

Joanne Greenberg

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Hart, a published writer on literary themes, examines the differences between the methods of Dr. Fried and Dr. Royson and their respective effects on the novel's protagonist, Deborah Blau.

Greenberg wrote I Never Promised You a Rose Garden as a fictionalized account of her three-year period in a mental hospital. She decided to fictionalize this story possibly to protect herself, her family, and the other patients with whom she shared the experience. This decision does not mean that the incidents that Greenberg relates are any less true, but it does raise curiosity concerning how Greenberg may have brought those elements together in order to tell her story.

For instance, what is Greenberg attempting to say when she juxtaposes the skills, intelligence, and therapy styles of Dr. Fried and Dr. Royson? These doctors are obviously opposed to one another in many ways. Deborah responds to Dr. Fried by...